text:
If your image of a city hall involves a venerable building, some Roman pillars and lots of public employees, the version offered by this Atlanta suburb of 94,000 residents is a bit of a shocker.
The entire operation is housed in a generic, one-story industrial park, along with a restaurant and a gym. And though the place has a large staff, none are on the public payroll. O.K., seven are, including the city manager. But unless you chance into one of them, the people you meet here work for private companies through a variety of contracts.
Applying for a business license? Speak to a woman with Severn Trent, a multinational company based in Coventry, England. Want to build a new deck on your house? Chat with an employee of Collaborative Consulting, based in Burlington, Mass. Need a word with people who oversee trash collection? That would be the URS Corporation, based in San Francisco.
Even the city's court, which is in session on this May afternoon, next to the revenue division, is handled by a private company, the Jacobs Engineering Group of Pasadena, Calif. The company's staff is in charge of all administrative work, though the judge, Lawrence Young, is essentially a legal temp, paid a flat rate of $100 an hour.
"I think of it as being a baby judge," says Mr. Young, who spends most of his time drafting trusts as a lawyer in a private practice, "because we don't have to deal with the terrible things that you find in Superior Court."
With public employee unions under attack in states like Wisconsin, and with cities across the country looking to trim budgets, behold a town built almost entirely on a series of public-private partnerships — a system that leaders around here refer to, simply, as "the model."
Cities have dabbled for years with privatization, but few have taken the idea as far as Sandy Springs. Since the day it incorporated, Dec. 1, 2005, it has handed off to private enterprise just about every service that can be evaluated through metrics and inked into a contract.
To grasp how unusual this is, consider what Sandy Springs does not have. It does not have a fleet of vehicles for road repair, or a yard where the fleet is parked. It does not have long-term debt. It has no pension obligations. It does not have a city hall, for that matter, if your idea of a city hall is a building owned by the city. Sandy Springs rents.
The town does have a conventional police force and fire department, in part because the insurance premiums for a private company providing those services were deemed prohibitively high. But its 911 dispatch center is operated by a private company, iXP, with headquarters in Cranbury, N.J.
"When it comes to public safety, outsourcing has always been viewed with a kind of suspicion," says Joseph Estey, who manages the Sandy Springs 911 service in a hushed gray room a few miles from city hall. "What I think really tipped the balance here is that they were outsourcing just about everything else."
Does the Sandy Springs approach work? It does for Sandy Springs, says the city manager, John F. McDonough, who points not only to the town's healthy balance sheet but also to high marks from residents on surveys about quality of life and quality of government services.
But that doesn't mean "the model" can be easily exported — Sandy Springs has the built-in advantage that comes from wealth — or that its widespread adoption would enhance the commonweal. Critics contend that the town is a white-flight suburb that has essentially seceded from Fulton County, a 70-mile-long stretch that includes many poor and largely African-American areas, most of them in Atlanta and points south.
The prospect of more Sandy Springs-style incorporations concerns people like Evan McKenzie, author of "Privatopia: Homeowner Associations and the Rise of Residential Private Government." He worries that rich enclaves may decide to become gated communities writ large, walling themselves off from areas that are economically distressed.
"You could get into a 'two Americas' scenario here," he says. "If we allow the more affluent to institutionally isolate themselves, then the poor are supposed to do — what? They're supposed to have all the poverty and all the social problems and deal with them?"
The champions of Sandy Springs counter that they still send plenty of tax dollars to the county and that race had nothing to do with the decision to incorporate. (The town's minority population is now 30 percent and growing, they note.) Leaders here say they had simply grown tired of the municipal service offered by Fulton County.
"We make no apologies for being more affluent than other parts of the metro area," says Eva Galambos, the mayor of Sandy Springs. And what does she make of the attitude of the town's detractors? "Pure envy," she says.
NOTHING about Sandy Springs hints that it is one of the country's purest examples of a contract city. Even those city hall employees betray no sign that they work for a jumble of corporations. Drive around and you'll see a nondescript upscale suburb, where the most notable features are traffic lights that seem to take five minutes to turn green. There is no downtown, or at least anything that looks like a main street. Instead, there are strip malls with plenty of usual-suspect franchises — although one strip mall, oddly enough, includes a small museum that tells the story of Anne Frank.
The town is home to offices of United Parcel Service, Hardee's and other corporations, and it also serves as a bedroom community for Atlanta. Residents include Herman Cain, members of the Atlanta Braves and the Atlanta Falcons, and executives at Delta Air Lines, CNN and other companies. This is also home to the rapper and producer Akon, whose opulent tastes were featured in an episode of "Cribs" on MTV.
"A few years ago, I got a call from his head of security," says Kenneth DeSimone, the deputy chief of police, who is giving a tour of the town one May afternoon. It turned out that somebody had stolen a pistol and a laptop from Akon's home.
"He seemed really focused on the laptop and I was looking around this guy's house thinking, 'What is the big deal with this laptop? He can afford another one.' Turns out, there was a bunch of new Lady Gaga demos on it. Worth millions."
That crime was solved when an informant helped lead the police to some young people who, Mr. DeSimone said, had no idea whose home they had entered and what was stored on the computer.
The car driven by Mr. DeSimone says "Sandy Springs" on the side, which is one reason that this town can't claim to be the most outsourced city in the United States. That distinction probably belongs to Maywood, Calif., eight miles southeast of Los Angeles, which in 2010 fired all but one employee, its city manager. Maywood is now operated, from top to bottom, through contracts. The police officers are members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, paid a combined $3.5 million a year to patrol the streets, according to Felipe Aguirre, a council member.
But Maywood was pushed to extreme measures after it flirted with bankruptcy and lost insurance coverage for its public work force. Sandy Springs went the public-private partnership route by choice, and it evangelizes about its success.
Few have more zeal than Oliver W. Porter, a founding father and architect in chief.
With his gray beard and thick gray hair, Mr. Porter is a beatnik version of John Updike with a Southern drawl and a pipe. He is sitting one morning in a tiny room in his basement, which has a small desk, a chair and a psychiatrist's couch. A parachute is spread out along the ceiling, like a canopy, and a mural of an ancient Roman landscape — Mr. Porter's handiwork — adorns one wall.
This unassuming nook is where every element of Sandy Springs was conceived and designed. With the title of interim city manager, Mr. Porter drafted requests for proposals and fielded calls here, often from people who imagined him in charge of a small battalion of employees.
"One day a lady called and said: 'Oh, Mr. Porter, I didn't mean to interrupt you. May I speak to your staff?' " he recalls. Reliving the moment, he picks up the phone, puts it to one ear and then switches to the other.
"Staff speaking," he told the caller, in a slightly deeper voice.
Mr. Porter, a retired AT&T engineer, was an advocate of the town when it was a hopeless cause, during the many years when Democrats blocked efforts to let a largely Republican and white suburb cleave itself from Fulton County. One Democratic legislator vowed that Sandy Springs would incorporate "when pigs fly," a phrase that Mayor Galambos has since adopted as the name of her blog.
After an election in 2004, both houses of Georgia's legislature were controlled by Republicans for the first time since Reconstruction.
"It was like a dog that's been chasing a train for years and finally catches it," Mr. Porter says. "The question was, What do I do with it now?"
As a fan of Ronald Reagan and the economist Friedrich Hayek, Mr. Porter came naturally to the notion that Sandy Springs could push "the model" to its nth degree. His philosophical inclinations were formed by a life spent in private enterprise, and cemented by a visit to Weston, Fla., a town that had begun as a series of gated communities.
Mr. Porter tells this and other stories in "Creating the New City of Sandy Springs," a book that will leave readers with one indelible lesson: incorporating a city is dull. Superduper dull. The book is composed mostly of the codicils, requests for proposals and definitions of duties that were required to jolt Sandy Springs to life. Without a love of minutiae and a very long attention span, forget it. But this is intended as a blueprint, not a gripping narrative. Mr. Porter regards the success of Sandy Springs as a way out of the financial morass that has engulfed so many cities in the aftermath of the Great Recession.
"Many are on the verge of bankruptcy," Mr. Porter says. "They have significant unfunded liabilities, like pensions and other benefits. It's almost like a poison that a lot of people are unaware of, and this model could be an answer."
HOVERING around the debate about privatization is a basic question: What is local government for? For years, one answer, at least implicitly, was "to provide steady jobs with good wages." But that answer is losing its political tenability, says John D. Donahue of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. "A lot of jobs in government are middle-class jobs that in the private sector are not middle-class jobs," he says. "People aren't willing to support conditions for public workers that they themselves no longer enjoy."
In a way, what Sandy Springs and other newly incorporated towns have done harks back to a 19th-century notion of taxation, which was much less about cross-subsidies and much more about fee for service.
"It was normal from around 1830 through the end of the Civil War for cities to be run like businesses," says Mr. McKenzie, the "Privatopia" author. "When people paid property taxes, it was to get something that benefited them directly — like butchers wanting a certain area cleaned up."
Sandy Springs residents still send roughly $190 million a year to Fulton County through property taxes, about half of which goes to schools, including those in Sandy Springs. But by incorporating, the town gets to keep $90 million in taxes a year to spend as it pleases.
Has this financially hurt the rest of Fulton County? It has, says the county manager, Zachary Williams, who calculates that the incorporation of Sandy Springs, and neighboring towns that incorporated after it, cost the county about $38 million a year. Mr. Williams described the figure as "significant," especially given the strains imposed by the economic downturn.
"I would bet that Atlanta is top five in the country in terms of foreclosures," he says. "I think our vacancy rate is 14 to 18 percent."
Some Georgia politicians outside Sandy Springs regard it and other breakaway towns as "the first shot in the battle to destroy Fulton County," as State Senator Vincent Fort, a Democrat whose district includes part of Atlanta, put it.
"What you have is the northern section of the county," he went on, "which is mostly white, seeking to leave the rest of Fulton County, and doing so with what I think are racially tinged arguments about the corruption and inefficiency of local government."
Town leaders say race had nothing to do with it. Mayor Galambos said, "A 94 percent vote in favor of incorporation speaks to the broad community support for self-government and a desire to have local dollars remain local."
BUT leave aside questions of fairness and race. Many cities that have dipped a toe or two into the privatization pool, and others that have plunged in, have had awful results. Recently, the company that has a contract to manage Chicago's parking meters sent the city a series of bills, totaling nearly $50 million, to make up for revenue lost from people with disability parking placards and from street closings. Mayor Rahm Emanuel has refused to pay.
New York City's comptroller released a report in late May that said that Hewlett-Packard, a major contractor in the city's emergency dispatch service, was paid $113 million for work considered subpar.
In Maywood, Calif., going private has driven up the cost of running the town, says Mr. Aguirre, the council member, and the quality of municipal service has gone down.
"Let's say a tree falls on a car," Mr. Aguirre says. "Previously, we had an employee who would deal with it. Now, you have to make an appointment and they'll come out when they can. They're not our people to control any more."
Mr. McDonough, the Sandy Springs city manager, says the town has sidestepped such problems. The key, he explains, lay in the fine art of drafting contracts.
Initially, and for the first five and a half years of its life, Sandy Springs used just one company, CH2M Hill, based in Englewood, Colo., to handle every service it delivered. Mr. McDonough says CH2M saved the town millions compared with the cost of hiring a conventional public work force, but last year Sandy Springs sliced the work into pieces and solicited competitive bids.
When the competition was over, the town had spread duties to a handful of corporations and total annual outlays dropped by $7 million. (Representatives of CH2M, which still has a call-center contract, said at the time that they were "deeply disappointed" by the results, but wished the city well, according to a local news report.)
To dissuade companies from raising prices or reducing the quality of service, the town awarded contracts to a couple of losing bidders for every winner it hired. The contracts do not come with any pay or any work — unless the winning bidder that prevailed fails to deliver. It's a bit like the Miss America pageant anointing the runner-up as the one who will fulfill the winner's duties if, for some reason, Miss America cannot.
"In most cases, Miss America serves her whole term," Mr. McDonough says, warming to the analogy. "But every once in a while something happens and they don't have to run a whole new competition."
The privatized approach saves money, he continues, because corporations hire superior workers and give them better training. Work handled by 15 public employees can be done by 12 privately employed workers, he says: "It's all about the caliber of employee and the customer focus that comes out of the private sector."
During a tour of city hall, Mr. McDonough bumps into Kevin Walter, the deputy director of public works. Mr. Walker has good news. Currently, Sandy Springs pays for two people to operate two road maintenance trucks five days a week — in effect, 10 days of work every two weeks. Well, Mr. Walker has just figured out a way to reduce the number to nine days every two weeks, saving $50,000 a year.
Does Mr. Walker, or rather his company, URS, get to keep a portion of that $50,000?
"No," Mr. Walker says. "But I get to keep my job. Our job is to run all these projects and programs very efficiently."
And your contract?
"It is renewed every year," Mr. Walker says.
"It can be renewed every year," Mr. McDonough clarifies.
"It can be renewed every year," says Mr. Walker, correcting himself.
Any anxiety that you will not be renewed?
"No," Mr. Walker says. He quickly reconsiders. "A little bit," he says. "Enough so that we do an excellent job. We know we can do an excellent job and we have faith in the city. And we know it would not be easy for them to change so we'd have to really mess up for them to change. But we're not going to mess up."
Source: NY Times


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If you have been wondering whether it's possible to install metal roofing over shingles, you should know that it's possible.
The main advantage of installing the metal roofing is that the roof tends to have a long lifespan; therefore, once you install it you don't have to keep on installing it over and over again.
To install the roof you need a measuring tape, a chalk line, and snips to cut the metal.
Once you have these tools you should start by measuring the height and width of the roof. The sole aim of measuring the roof is to determine the amount of metal that you need. When measuring you should ensure that you include 2-4 inches of overhang.
Once you have the measurements you should head to the stores to buy the roofing. The best roofing that you should go for is the V-crimp roofing. The good side with this roofing is that you don't need to use lap screws which makes the installation process very easy.
To ensure that the roofing materials fit in place perfectly, you should ensure that you install slat boards over shingles. For ideal results you should ensure that the boards are 24″ apart.
When you complete installing the boards you should now install the metal roofing over the slats. Installing the roofing is easy. This is because all you need to do is to screw the roofing into slats.
Once the first sheet is in place you should now install the second sheet. Here you need to overlap the second sheet on the first bubble and screw it in place.
You should continue doing this until the entire roof is complete. When you reach the last sheet, you should measure it and ensure that you allow an overhang that goes just beyond the peak of the roof.
You should mark where you want the roof to reach and then using tin snips cut off all the extra material across the entire sheet. After doing this you should screw the last sheet in place.
Once all the metal sheets are in place you should now put on the metal edging which aids in covering the sides of the roof. The edging also covers the roof peak. For the edging to fit on both sides of the roof you need to notch the edging in the center.
When it comes to roof edging you should screw in the bottoms every 24″ using wood screws. For ideal results you should insert the screws on either side near the high point of the roof, but not at the very top.

subset: commoncrawl


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In the year 2001, my school friend walked inside my IIT hostel looking for me. He had already graduated from T.S.Chanakya as a sailor and had landed with a plum job. He found me sleeping in the common room sofa with a bridge book in my hand. I was wearing worn-out clothes and I was unkempt and dirty. The look in my friend's eyes was enough to tell me what he was thinking, "What is he doing with his life?" In his contempt and disdain he failed to notice a very important thing:
I was insanely happy.
In fact, I was delerious with happiness. I had been practising for my upcoming bridge tournament and had cracked some intricately complex bridge hands in the bridge book before falling asleep on the sofa. Unfortunately, my friend who had come to spend an evening with me was highly disappointed with what I was doing and left soon. I went back to my book.
Unknown to my friend, I had been traveling in trains without ticket all over the country for the past two years, playing in every major bridge tournament. My friend would have been further shocked to hear that I had not taken any job in the campus placement and I was aspiring to be a professional bridge player after graduation. Well, I did take a job after graduating though, in order to sustain myself. Then I went to Italy for a year. Why? Because Italy was one of the Meccas for bridge players. I played bridge everyday of my life in Italy, earned a lot of money in the tournaments, and came back.
In 2003, I was the youngest player playing in the quarterfinals of Winter Nationals held at Aurangabad. I had two reporters sitting on my either side reporting my every move.
Fast forward to year 2007. A CAT aspirant walked into a two room flat in Srinivaspuri searching for the office of a small website called www.totalgadha.com. He wanted to buy the printed copy of an ebook on number system published by the website. The student was surprised to see that the two founders, a guy and a girl, did not own even a bed or a table and that they were working on a desktop kept on the floor. The founders were Rati and I. We were sustaining TotalGadha and ourselves on my teacher's salary then, and I couldn't afford furniture at home. The student left without purchasing the book. But just like my friend, the student also failed to notice that the founders were insanely happy about what they were doing.
In fact, they were having a ball. They loved working on the website.
The story did not end there though. One year later, the student was amongst the first to join the classroom program of TotalGadha. And if you do not know it yet, today it is the costliest MBA prep program in the country. And it rocks.
It wasn't always so rocking though. Here is a true story I narrated to my students on TotalGadha-
"When we started our first TathaGat center at Kailash Colony in Delhi in December, 2007, we intended to continue there for a couple of years. But, within a few months, we realized that we should be operating in Connaught Place (CP), the heart of Delhi and one of the costliest places in India. We did not realize how costly CP was until we started searching for an office space in April, 2008. Day after day, we traveled on foot from one building to another, trying to find a less expensive place for our center. We spoke with property brokers, office owners, shopkeepers, janitors and guards. Soon we realized that operating in CP was out of our budget. We had found a lot more empty places for rent in CP than what the property brokers knew about, but we were nowhere near our goal. One day, my partner and I traveled on foot in the middle circle of CP, entering every building and asking the guard or the owners if they had a small place for us to teach students. I do not remember how many kilometers we walked on foot that day but by the end of the day, we found that our dream was impossible. And then we gave up. We decided to open in CP once we had the money to afford it.
That night, after having meal in a restaurant, we went to have coffee at twenty-four seven at Satyam Cineplex, Nehru Place. We were sweaty, tired and full of dust. And we were dejected. When we reached our destination, we were already rejoicing in the car how we have saved some money by not opening at CP. When you know you are beaten and licked, your mind adapts fairly quickly to defeat. At that particular moment, the miracle we have been trying for the last 15 days happened. The moment our car stopped, my partner exclaimed in disbelief; right in front of our car was parked a gleaming new Carrera, a 2- 3 crore car from Porsche. I am not a car fan but partner is, and when he told me the price, I was also impressed. Then the owner of the car, a nondescript chap in simple jeans and a teeshirt, came, sat into the car, and drove away. But our surprise hadn't ended still. The moment the Carrera started, lights from a car parked behind us turned on. There was an S-class Mercedes parked behind us, inside which were sitting 2-3 bodyguards of the Carrera's owner. Imagine, a guy traveling in a car worth 2- 3 crores and his bodyguards traveling in a car worth 40- 60 lakh. We sat watching both the cars drive away slowly. The moment they were out of our sight, my partner and I exclaimed simultaneously, "Yaar, Kholte hain CP Center." In a matter of minutes, a car had changed our attitude.
The rest is history. We doubled our efforts to find a center, and we decided not to stop till we found it. On April 26th, 2008, our first batch started at our new CP center."
Well great! Why am I telling you this? Because our CP center's rent was so high that it squeezed us dry four months later. That month, we did not take our salaries. My partner was buying even cigarettes on credit card. I was buying my ration on credit card. We were completely broke. But students were coming to learn from us. Gradually, we pulled through. But as again, throughout these tough times, not a soul amongst us cared. We never felt remotely miserable.
One and a half year ago, Rati popped a question to me "Should I quit working on my makeup blog?" She had started the blog one month earlier and she loved writing there. If she worked there, she would not be able to devote time to TotalGadha. I had my answer ready. Had it ready for years.
Go Where Your Passion Takes You.


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Columns Retired Columns & Blogs |
"Objective criteria are meaningless in determining personal enjoyment. If the point of listening to music on a hi-fi is enjoyment (and if it isn't, you and I have nothing to discuss), and if music is art, the more meaningful experience comes about through our increased knowledge and enjoyment of music, not our increased knowledge of and fascination with hi-fi's ability to fool the ear. Trompe l'oreille?"
That's why professional studios do not care at all about the speakers they mix their products with... /sarc


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For my next stop, I took the train to Kaiserslautern to visit my friends Barb and Dave. Last time I saw them, they had recently returned from the Peace Corps in Swaziland. Now they have lived in three additional countries and have two teenaged daughters!
I didn't do a whole lot of birding here – having come down with a persistent cold my first morning didn't help. But Barb and I had fun with making a couple meals – I did chicken fajitas one night, and she made delicious tilapia with a mango salsa one night. I also showed Barb the easy no-knead bread that I like so much.
We took one field trip to Ramstein base to do some shopping, but along the way we did some fossil hunting in the mall (this and the grocery store are a strange bit of America in the middle of Europe). The floors and walls of the mall made from locally quarried limestone. Here are a belemnite, an ammonite, and a hard-to-see staghorn coral.
The weather was often not conducive to birding, and when it got better and I felt well enough for a short walk, we went through the field behind their house and into a strip of woods at the bottom of the hill. We had some just-arriving Pied Flycatchers, a pair of Chiffchaffs building a nest, and a wonderfully vocal Common Nightingale. I managed to get a pretty good recording of it with the Audio Memo app on my iPhone and loaded it up to Xeno-canto.


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Giving the Democrats more power in California — is that what we really want?
A friend emailed me with a question about an initiative poised for California's November ballot, called the "Simple Majority" initiative. I'll let the Wall Street Journal explain:
Two groups are pushing ballot initiatives they say would purge that chaos from Sacramento's budget process. A bipartisan group, California Forward, is pushing a reform to let legislators pass budgets by a simple majority instead of the current two-thirds threshold. Repair California, which is affiliated with a pro-business group, is gathering support to hold a constitutional convention to rewrite state laws. Such a convention could alter the budget process and other facets of governance in California.
The recession has pinched state budgets across the nation, prompting legislatures to enact tax increases and spending cuts. California has an especially tough time solving its fiscal woes because it is one of only three states that require at least two-thirds of its state legislators to approve a spending plan. That means budget negotiations usually stall as Democrats, who make up 64% of California's legislature, struggle to win Republican votes.
California Forward hopes to place a measure on the November ballot that would alter the budget process both for the state and local governments. It would let state legislators pass budgets by a simple majority, while maintaining the two-thirds vote requirement to raise taxes. The measure would also institute what is known as a pay-as-you-go system, in which lawmakers must identify funding sources for any new programs.
"We just have to stop the madness of these IOUs being issued and these horrible budget delays," said Bob Hertzberg, a former Democratic speaker of the California Assembly who is co-chair of California Forward. "It sends a message…that California is dysfunctional."
The local-government part of the proposal would make it easier for municipalities to raise sales taxes, by one percentage point, to fund education and other services. It would also prohibit the state from tapping the coffers of local governments during budget emergencies, as it did last year.
My response to my friend was that, because the Democrats are the majority in the California legislature, anything that gives them a simple majority gives them powers that have the potential to be imminently destructive to our economy. While the initiative, on its face, looks as if it would force Democrats to keep their budgets in line because they wouldn't have concurrent taxing power (with tax increases still requiring a 2/3 majority), I'm suspicious.
Think about what's happening in San Francisco. As I blogged yesterday, San Francisco's school district, which is facing a huge shortfall and is considering cutting all sorts of academic programs, is simultaneously seriously considering a significant budget increase in the form of a program that would collect statistics on gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual students, as well as helping education discrimination. The current level of discrimination is not from assaults from other students, or insults or discriminatory treatment from teachers. It's verbal taunts, especially from the elementary school crowd – ungracious, hurtful and mean-spirited to be certain, but hard to use to justify this kind of expensive government intervention during a time of financial crisis.
It's this fantasy PC rule-making that makes me loath to make it even easier for the pro-government crowd to pass more insane budgets. Even if they have less money, they'll still spend it foolishly.
I'm not the only one suspicious that this is a Trojan horse that will redirect public spending away from infrastructure and towards politically favored victim groups. Republicans are also worried:
Statehouse Republicans will fight California Forward's initiatives, said Tony Strickland, the state Senate's Republican assistant minority leader. If the budget-approval threshold is lowered, then Republicans would lose their outsized influence in the statehouse because Democrats could pass budgets without GOP votes. The California "Central valley, the farmers, agriculture"—constituencies typically represented by Republicans—"will lose their voices," Mr. Strickland said.
The antitax Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association will oppose any effort that would ease local governments' ability to raise taxes, said Jon Coupal, the group's president. He and Mr. Strickland said they will also oppose Repair California's constitutional convention because it could result in a repeal of Proposition 13, a 32-year-old law that caps property-tax rates.
If you're a Californian, I'd urge you to think very seriously before voting yes on this initiating, assuming that it makes it onto the ballot. The only thing that's truly going to save California is for voters to throw the Democrats out (along with any spend, spend, spend Republicans). Unless California brings down its spending, most of which goes for government employee pensions and politically correct funding, nothing will save us.


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There ain't no drug
The sickness is myself
I've made a mess of me
I want to get back the rest of me
I want to spend the rest of my life alive
I want to reverse this tragedy
I want to spend the rest of my life alive
For many reasons, that song has really resonated with me lately. And, yes, despite my lack of posting, I am still alive. And so is my garden. Walk with me now and we'll have a little look-see at what's blooming.
It's been raining and everything is sprouting by leaps and bounds. Last fall I dug up a bunch of bleeding hearts from my mom's garden, and was surprised that some of them are white. Aren't they cute?
Starting at the front of the house, here are some cute primroses.
The purple sand cherry outside my front door was blooming when I got home from Chicago. The pale petals are very bright at night.
Look how tall the peony is already--they normally bloom in mid June!
Aw, my little Geum triflorum finally has buds (waves to Xan and Kylee).
PPPP (thanks, Gail!) is doing really well in the foreground, and there's the giant Euphorbia in the background, plus Jimi, Sandy (my car), and Pinky (flamingo).
In a long bed that parallels my house and the street, this native ninebark has really taken off. I got it a few years ago looking literally like one small twig.
Nearby the ninebark, my little $3.33 Pieris is kicking out blooms and taking names.
Isn't she the sweetest? (Just smile and nod.)
In the same bed, my darling fothergilla is starting to bloom.
In the xeric bed along my driveway, these little rock garden sedum seem to be doing well.
Farther up in the xeric bed, is rattlesnake master, one of my favorite Michigan natives. I just love the leaf margins!
Got the creeping phlox on sale past-bloom last season so I'm happy to see it flower!
The candytuft was another sale find last year, and I also welcome its first-time blooms for me.
A few Trillium at the north side of my house, which is my shadiest area. There were some Jack in the Pulpits here as well, but...
Moving along the north side of the house, and the only boundary with a neighbor, this viburnum smells wonderful!
And looks nice, too.
I was shocked to see hops growing near my privacy partition. It was given to me last year but I thought it had died, because no foliage ever came up. Sweet!
On my deck are winter-sown containers, plus some larger things that have been planted into larger containers while waiting to be planted out. These radishes will go into a container with the baby carrots (thanks, Lisa!) as soon as the carrots are large enough.
Turnips are looking good.
The marrowfat (or maro) peas are coming along nicely--I can't wait to make mushy peas. (Thanks so much, Anna, for mailing me the seeds from England!)
I got the Bintje potatoes, which were sprouting, planted in a container last week. As the foliage comes up, I'll add more soil to the tub.
These irises (possibly from Randy) along the east side of my house are blooming very early this year.
The cat garden has the most color I have in any one place in spring.
In case you missed it above, tulips! So far this year, no groundhog damage (knock wood)! The Valerian in the background is taking over the cat garden (be warned, Sweetbay).
Along the north side of my garden, I've had this funky viburnum for at least five years and this is the first year it's flowered. It also seems to keep its leaves all through the winter, unlike any other viburnum I know.
Some bleeding hearts in bloom, plus hosta and lilies coming up, in the east wild bed.
Now that so much buckthorn is gone, I have a better view into the park. I'd never realized there was some spring color hiding back there!
Farther west along the south property line is this little lilac with just one bloom.
Also really early this year, usually early June!
Farther west still along the same south bed is the area mostly cleared earlier this season by the city. There's still a lot of clearing out for me to do, too.
With Jimi in the background of so many photos, I asked Bizi to come out and pose in the cat garden. Even though I normally can't keep this cat inside, of course she refused to come out just because I wanted her to. Yep, that's Fiona. (Fiona = Fi = Fizi = Bizi.)
This more nub-like shape is more what I expected (sorry about photo quality).
The amaryllis I bought on sale the day after Christmas is finally blooming.
Hope you enjoyed your little tour.
I'm going to try to post this coming week about other recent fun stuff but... we'll see!


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As a freshman Senator in 1985, John Kerry was obsessed with the Philippines. Troubled by what he saw as America's blind support of strongman Ferdinand Marcos, Kerry began introducing amendment after amendment calling for free and fair elections in the Philippines. Ronald Reagan reluctantly named Kerry to the delegation of election observers, and once there, Kerry choppered all over the country interviewing poll workers. What he found was troubling: evidence of massive fraud. He held a press conference and took his findings back to Reagan, who eventually dropped his support of Marcos and threw his weight behind Corazon Aquino, who was then declared the democratically elected leader of the country.
The episode won Kerry few friends , but was typical of the Massachusetts politician. Over the years, Kerry has hardly been Mr. Popularity in the clubby Senate, but his colleagues have begun to appreciate his stubborn smarts. When it looked like President Obama might name U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice to succeed Hillary Clinton as secretary of State, many protested – even those from the other side of the aisle. "[Kerry] would get a lot of support in the Senate because we all know John," says Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican. "I often disagree with him on foreign and domestic policy, but he's a collaborative guy by nature. I think he's got a lot of experience. He knows most of the people on the world stage."
In naming Kerry his nominee to his top cabinet post, Obama will get a nominee with a long and distinguished foreign policy record, a politician with experience and gravitas, but also one with very much his own mind. Whereas Rice got herself into trouble for sticking too closely to the talking points, from his perch as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Kerry has often stretched Obama's patience. Long before it was U.S. policy, Kerry called for the imposition of a no-fly zone in Libya, writing op-eds encouraging the Administration to follow suit. He also called for the U.S. to end its support for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak well before the White House did. In an April 2011 speech at the Brookings' Saban Center, he blasted the Administration for "wasting" time on "the wrong approach" on Middle East peace that was "unachievable." That same month he criticized the Administration's Pakistan policy as "not a real strategy" in an interview with USA Today's editorial board. And in 2012 he held a hearing encouraging the Administration to arm Syrian opposition groups, a move the Administration is reportedly now weighing.
That's not to say Kerry can't also be a good foot solider. To some criticism he's avoided holding gotcha oversight hearings. He played Mitt Romney in debate prep for the President during the campaign this year. In 2009 he flew to Afghanistan to persuade Afghan President Hamid Karzai to allow a runoff election instead of grabbing power in undemocratic fashion. He flew to Pakistan to negotiate the release of CIA operative Ray Davis. He also delivered the President's messages to north and south Sudan before the referendum that split those countries and helped push through the stalled Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty in the 2011 lame duck session.
Indeed, Obama owes some of his political success to Kerry. On the day that Kerry won the 2004 Democratic nomination, he flew to Illinois for a fundraiser with Obama, then a Democratic nominee to represent Illinois in the Senate. Later that year, he also gave Obama the keynote spot in at the Democratic National Convention, a speech that launched Obama onto the national stage. And Kerry bucked pressure from his longtime friends, Bill and Hillary Clinton, to become one of the first sitting Senators to endorse Obama for President in 2007.
Both men enter Obama's second term with an eye toward legacy, particularly in the foreign policy arena. And there's much to tackle. Already Israel's flare up in Gaza has brought the peace process back to the fore. Iran has hinted they might be ready for direct talks with the U.S., as Israel grows more nervous by the day at Tehran's progress toward a nuclear weapon. Tens of thousands of protesters line the streets in Egypt. Syria stands at the brink with Bashar Assad's finger on the chemical weapons' trigger. Russia is getting impatient on missile defense, among other issues. As their economy struggles, Eurozone nations are still squabbling about banking integration and bailing out Greece. And there's still the much-hyped and little-achieved pivot to Asia that Obama announced in his first term.
Barring a major surprise, Kerry will easily be confirmed and will presumably dig right into these issues. The question is, in building his legacy, will Kerry keep Obama's in mind? He has, after all, been his own boss for almost his entire career. As Vice President Joe Biden – himself a longtime chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee — once wryly noted, subsuming one's ambitions to another's is no easy feat for a Senator. Kerry has proven that when his interests align with Obama's, Obama has no greater ally on foreign policy. But will those interests always align? As with the Philippines, Kerry has a knack for publically forcing foreign policy changes; his challenge now will be to privately steer change from the inside.


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Cromwell, Our Chief of Men
No Englishman has made more impact on the history of his nation than Oliver Cromwell; few have been so persistently maligned in the folklore of history. The central purpose of Antonia Fraser's book is the recreation of his life and character, freed from the distortions of myth and Royalist propaganda. Cromwell was a man of contradictions and surprising charm. The ruthless Psalm-singing General of the battlefields was also a country gentleman who, after his victory at Worcester paused to hawk in the fields nearby; the stern Puritan was also an exceptionally doting father; the most decisive and ruthless of commanders was also the passionate connoisseur of music; the strong man of England was prey to exhausting prolonged bouts of irresolution and as Lord Protector kept England on tenterhooks for a week while he wrestled with his conscience whether to accept the Crown. Of Cromwell's fitness for high office, both military and civil, this fascinating biography leaves no doubt. Under his rule English prestige abroad rose to a level unequalled since Elizabeth I. Yet - as Antonia Fraser's judicious assessment shows - his campaign in Ireland has cast a shadow over his reputation. As in all her books, Antonia Fraser combines a high standard of scholarship with a most exciting narrative. The result is a major biography in the finest tradition which displays great insight into this complex man and reveals a totally unexpected Cromwell far removed from the received stereotype.


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Kickstarter: Magination
Posted by James (admin) on December 15th, 2015
I get notified about a lot of Kickstarter projects and I thought I would post a quick message about one particular one that caught my eye called Magination, It is a set of magnetic pieces which contain one, two or three very powerful magnets in each and various games can be played with these. One example called MagTension is to set up a ring of 2-magnet pieces and then take turns placing 1-magnet pieces inside the ring – the first person to place one that attracts others not only loses the game (so it's a bit like the magnetic equivalent of Jenga) but it can cause a chain reaction of the magnets bouncing around attracting more and more and finally sticking to the ring. It looks very cool in practice. Another use is to use a piece containing 3 magnets to flick a 1-magnet piece across the table using the repelling magnetic fields.
Rather than try and describe it further, check out the main video on their Kickstarter page which does show it off very well indeed (and conveys it much better than pure text). Some of the chain reactions are great.
Check out Magination and their video on Kickstarter here
The Kickstarter has already funded (by 6 times) but has only 60 hours remaining if you want to get involved.


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Coordinated School Health
Coordinated School Health
Coordinator - Laurie Stanton, MS, RD
931-388-8403 | ext. 8145Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on TwitterMCPS Coordinated School Health is funded by a grant from the State of Tennessee.
Campaign for Healthy Kids Video
Immunizations Reminder video for parents
Tennessee School Health LawsComponents of a Comprehensive School Health Program
A Coordinated ApproachCoordinated School Health (CSH) is an effective system designed to connect health (physical, emotional, and social) with education. This coordinated approach improves students' health and their capacity to learn through the support of families, communities, and schools working together. The CSH approach consists of eight major components. By definition, all Coordinated School Health components work together to improve the lives of students and their families.
Healthy School Environment - The physical, emotional, and social climate of the school. Designed to provide a safe physical plant, as well as a healthy and supportive environment that fosters learning.
Comprehensive Health Education - Classroom instruction that addresses physical, mental, emotional, and social dimensions of health; develops health knowledge, attitudes, and skills; and is tailored to each age level. Designed to motivate and assist students to maintain and improve their health, prevent disease, and reduce health-related risk behaviors.
Physical Education/Physical Activity at School - Planned sequential instruction that promotes lifelong physical activity. Designed to develop basic movement skills, sports skills, and physical fitness as well as to enhance mental, social, and emotional abilities.
School Nutrition Services - Integration of nutritious, affordable, and appealing meals; nutrition education; and an environment that promotes healthy eating behaviors for all children. Designed to maximize each child's education and health potential for a lifetime.
School Health Services - Preventive services, education, emergency care, referral, and management of acute and chronic health conditions. Designed to promote the health of students, identify and prevent health problems and injuries, and ensure care for students.
School Counseling, Psychological & Social Services - Activities that focus on cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and social needs of individuals, groups, and families. Designed to prevent and address problems, facilitate positive learning and healthy behavior, and enhance healthy development.
Health Promotion for Staff - Assessment, education, and fitness activities for school faculty and staff. Designed to maintain and improve the health and well-being of school staff, who serve as role models for students.
Family and Community Involvement in School Health - Partnerships among schools, families, community groups, and individuals. Designed to share and maximize resources and expertise in addressing the healthy development of children, youth, and their families.


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Good morning. Here's a roundup of London 2012 Olympics news stories that have caught our interest. We also have a highlight list of today's upcoming events, in a different post. You can also check out our main schedule. Here's what's been happening already today:
-- Michael Phelps qualified for the 200m butterfly semifinal with the fifth-fastest time — a potentially worrying sign to his fans. Phelps qualified in the eighth slot for the 400m individual medley, finishing fourth in the final.
-- In singles tennis, Andy Roddick advanced to the second round after beating Martin Klizan of Slovakia, 7-5, 6-4, on the grass of Wimbledon.
-- As London handles both commuter and Olympic traffic for the first full day, British Prime Minister David Cameron declares the city's transit system to be fine. "I've been on the Tube this morning, it is not too bad," he tells the BBC.
-- A different type of traffic is not as smooth. Olympics organizers are blaming overzealous texting and tweeting fans for technical glitches, such as the BBC's botched GPS tracking of Saturday's men's cycling road race.
-- In judo, Marti Malloy of the United States upset No. 2 seed Telma Monteiro of Portugal Monday. The AP reports that after going into overtime, Malloy won when she "swept Monteiro's foot to make the winning throw." Which can't help but make me think of The Karate Kid.
-- An Olympics greeter has won fans with her ultra-dry welcoming speech, delivered over a loudspeaker to fans in Stratford, London. "I'm going to find a picture of myself, frame it, and give it to my mother. She'll be so proud," she told laughing spectators. The video is at Gawker.
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Scheme is a general-purpose programming language, descended from Algol and Lisp, widely used in computing education and research and a broad range of industrial applications. This thoroughly updated edition of The Scheme Programming Language provides an introduction to Scheme and a definitive reference for standard Scheme, presented in a clear and concise manner. Written for professionals and students with some prior programming experience, it begins by leading the programmer gently through the basics of Scheme and continues with an introduction to some of the more advanced features of the language.
The fourth edition has been substantially revised and expanded to bring the content up to date with the current Scheme standard, the Revised6 Report on Scheme. All parts of the book were updated and three new chapters were added, covering the language's new library, exception handling, and record-definition features.
The book offers three chapters of introductory material with numerous examples, eight chapters of reference material, and one chapter of extended examples and additional exercises. All of the examples can be entered directly from the keyboard into an interactive Scheme session. Answers to many of the exercises, a complete formal syntax of Scheme, and a summary of forms and procedures are provided in appendixes.
The Scheme Programming Language is the only book available that serves both as an introductory text in a variety of courses and as an essential reference for Scheme programmers.
About the Author
R. Kent Dybvig is Professor of Computer Science at Indiana University and principal developer of Chez Scheme.
"Kent Dybvig's The Scheme Programming Language is to Scheme what
Kernighan and Ritchie's The C Programming Language is to C. Kent's
book is the book for either the novice or serious Scheme programmer. Its
style, wit, and organization has reached a new high with the publication
of the fourth edition."
—Daniel P. Friedman, Department of Computer Science, Indiana
"Students in my Programming Language Concepts class need to learn the
basics of Scheme in a few days, and to pick up harder concepts throughout
the course.
For 19 years, The Scheme Programming Language has been an excellent
guide for them.
Dybvig's rapid-fire prose and examples serve both the Scheme beginner and
the experienced programmer in need of a reference.
Seldom do my students make a point of praising a computer science
textbook; that happens over and over with this one."
—Claude W. Anderson, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
"Eric Raymond once wrote that learning Lisp makes one a better programmer
for the rest of one's days. Scheme is the best dialect of Lisp to learn
for this purpose, and Kent Dybvig's book provides a comprehensive and
beautiful introduction to learning Scheme and becoming a better
—Olivier Danvy, Aarhus University,
Denmark, co-Editor-in-Chief of Higher-Order and Symbolic


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The Eleventh Annual Southern California Linux Expo
February 22-24, 2013
Hilton Los Angeles International Airport
February 22-24, 2013
Hilton Los Angeles International Airport
We have graphs for social networking and other complex structures, and some specialised tools to store and traverse them. But all our other data is conveniently in MySQL already…
We all know that SQL databases are unsuitable for handling these types of structures! Or are they? Well, not quite. Some can do this stuff, just as efficiently as a native graph store – because well, they are equally native, but oftwn without the convenient SQL interface and ability to join on to your other data.
The OQGRAPH engine is a GPL plugin bundled with MariaDB which was co-implemented with Arjen Lentz of Open Query. The presentation will show how the engine works and the kind of problems it can solve.I


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An Infowars 'reporter' read the riot act |
Inforwars, the far right government conspiracy clearing house helmed by crackpot Alex Jones, and one of Tamerlan Tsarnaev's favorite sites on the internet as it happens, sent a 'reporter' to
this week in support of claims that the recent bombings had been the result of a so-called 'false flag' operation that was actually carried out by the
That's right, they apparently believe the
bombed Boston.
On the day of the bombing Jones tweeted: 'This thing stinks to high heaven #falseflag,' adding that 'the FBI has been behind virtually every domestic terror plot in the US.'
You really don't want to take that garbage to Boston right now, there a tolerant lot but there's a limit, especially when they're still hurting from the recent bombing outrage that killed three, including an eight year old boy.
That's why a bystander who spots the Infowars dupe in the crowd reads him the riot act, including: 'The FBI is behind the bombing, that's what you're here to cover… Because the FBI blew up those people at the Boston Marathon? That's right. That's because you're a dope. And what you say is dangerous and people like you shouldn't be able to drive a car, much less espouse your opinions in public.'
I can't argue with those sentiments.
You may want to turn the volume down if you're watching this at work, the air turns blue quickly.


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Welcome to a new feature of the Fund for Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) Web site. This is where we will post new information that we hope will be of interest to academia and the general public. We welcome your comments, questions, and requests for additional resources that you would like to see. Send your remarks to Sarah T. Beaton, FIPSE Program Officer, at email@example.com.
President Honors Outstanding Science, Math, Engineering Mentors
On January 21, 2011 President Obama named 11 individuals and 4 organizations as recipients of the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring. One of the eleven individuals honored is Anthony Carpi of John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York, the project director for FIPSE Comprehensive Grant P116B060183 entitled Teaching the Process of Science. In a press release, the White House noted that the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring, awarded each year to individuals or organizations, recognize the crucial role that mentoring plays in the academic and personal development of students studying science or engineering—particularly those who belong to groups that are underrepresented in those fields. By offering their expertise and encouragement, mentors help prepare the next generation of scientists and engineers while ensuring that tomorrow's innovators reflect the full diversity of the United States. "These individuals and organizations have gone above and beyond the call of duty to ensure that the United States remains on the cutting edge of science and engineering for years to come," President Obama said. "Their devotion to the educational enrichment and personal growth of their students is remarkable, and these awards represent just a small token of our enormous gratitude."
The ELIXR Project
The Multimedia Education Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT) ELIXR Project was recently selected as an Innovation Award finalist by the Professional and Organizational Network in Higher Education in 2010. The competition recognizes innovative ideas that have improved learning and teaching, as well as enhanced the general effectiveness of higher education faculty members. MERLOT established the ELIXR Project in 2006 with the help of a Comprehensive Program Grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE). The objective of the ELIXR Project was to accelerate the adoption of exemplary teaching practices by faculty members at universities because of the increasing importance of developing effective and efficient faculty development programs. The innovative approach that ELIXR took was twofold: (1) to cultivate the development and use of discipline-specific case stories on exemplary teaching practices through collaborations across institutions; and (2) to use new and existing technologies to make these case stories readily accessible. These case stories feature faculty who apply an exemplary teaching practice for engaging learners in x [a topic or capability] with r [an exemplary teaching practice and resources to re-use] – ELIXR. These case stories are first person narrative videos that capture the reflections of faculty who are learning to use an exemplary teaching practice. They also contain at least four student reflections about the experience of learning from the faculty member. This project has resulted in 79 developed case stories covering 19 teaching topics and 43 different disciplines. What ensured the success of this project was the support ELIXR received from the 30 diverse contributing partner institutions. The "cornerstone" of this partnership was the California State University System, providing twelve of those partners. Through an agreement with MERLOT, the ELIXR Project will be hosted on their website ensuring sustainability for the next five years.
9/11 Living Memorial Digital Archive
In 2009, VOICES of September 11th (VOICES) began creating a digital archive of photographs, written materials, and personal keepsakes from families around the country whose lives were in some way affected by the events that occurred on September 11, 2001. Funding from a 2009 Congressionally-directed Grant managed by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), enabled VOICES to partner with Southern Connecticut University to establish a graduate course entitled "The Development of Digital Memorials and Cultural Archives." The course will educate approximately 20-40 graduate and continuing education students, over two semesters, in the theories and techniques needed to plan, create, and sustain digital archives. The training will enable participating citizens, communities, or organizations to record and preserve memories of events and people. Graduate students work in conjunction with team members from VOICES; this provides the graduate students with a meaningful and purposeful experience to illustrate the significance that digital archiving can have. The educational aspect of this project helps to accomplish VOICES' goal of honoring and commemorating the lives of those affected by the events on September 11, 2001. The digital archive graduate project continues through fiscal year 2011 with funding from a 2010 Congressionally-directed grant.
The Posse Foundation and College Summit are Among 10 Charities to Share President Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize Money
On March 11, 2010 President Barack Obama announced that he is donating $125,000 to College Summit, a national nonprofit organization to increase college enrollment rates, and $125,000 to the Posse Foundation which awards scholarships to promising public high school students. "These [ten] organizations do extraordinary work in the United States and abroad helping students and veterans and countless others in need," Obama said in a statement. Both College Summit and the Posse Foundation received early support from FIPSE. College Summit was the recipient of two FIPSE Comprehensive Grants in 2000 and 2003 and the Posse Foundation received a FIPSE Comprehensive Grant in 1998.
College Summit Releases The Promise of Proficiency White Paper
Earlier this fall, College Summit guided an influential group of national leaders, including the CEOs of PepsiCo, Google, Deloitte LLP, the Dallas Mavericks, and the President of Princeton University, to advocate for college proficiency. On December 3, 2009, College Summit joined with the Center for American Progress to release The Promise of Proficiency, a white paper that argues that our nation's high schools are flying blind without college data and discusses what can be done about it. College Summit is an innovative program that helps students from low-income families select schools, complete college applications, write personal statements, and apply for financial aid. In 2000 College Summit was awarded a FIPSE Comprehensive grant entitled "College Summit – The Pipeline to College for America's Low Income, Mid-Tier Students." College Summit was awarded another FIPSE Comprehensive Grant in 2003 for a project entitled "College Summit – A Collaborative Solution to Increase College Access for and Retention of Low-Income Youth."
First Cohort of Ten Colleges and Universities to Build Bridges with Indian Institutions
At its Fifth Annual Best Practices Conference attended by more than 150 international education professionals from college and university campuses the Institute of International Education announced the ten colleges and universities that were selected to participate in the pilot group on developing institutional linkages with India for the FIPSE-funded International Academic Partnerships Program (IAPP). The pilot group of ten U.S. campuses selected to participate in IAPP consists of: California State University - San Bernardino, College of William and Mary, Florida Atlantic University, Oakland Community College, Ohio Wesleyan University, Spelman College, St. Cloud State University, The University of Tulsa, University of South Carolina and Winston Salem State University. These campuses were chosen from a competitive candidate pool of more than 75 nominations and represent the breadth of U.S. institutions. They include historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), women's colleges, large research universities and liberal arts colleges. The group was selected by an advisory committee of experts in the field to help guide the new partnership program.
FIPSE Grantees Among 2010 Winners of the Senator Paul Simon Award for Campus Internationalization
FIPSE has awarded recent international grants to two of the five schools cited by NAFSA: Association of International Educators for "overall excellence in campus internationalization" – the University of San Francisco in California and Northeastern University. The University of San Francisco in California has a 2007 EU-U.S. Atlantis Program grant entitled Policy Project in Benchmarking Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurship Education. The university also served as a partner institution to Regis University on a 2004 U.S.-Brazil Program grant entitled Conservation and Reclamation in a Multidisciplinary Undergraduate Education. Northeastern University is a partner institution on a current EU-U.S. Atlantis Program grant to the University of Wisconsin – Madison entitled Policy Project in Transnational Applied Research in Gender Equity Training (TARGET).
Innovations 2010 Conference
Two current FIPSE grantees presented papers drawing on findings from their FIPSE projects at the Innovations 2010 Conference held in Baltimore, Maryland, from March 28-31, 2010. Rene Prupes of the Dallas County Community College District spoke of "Engaging Students: Partnering With Families for Student Success" based on work coming out of a 2006 FIPSE Comprehensive Grant entitled Family Involvement for Latino Success in College. Susan Henderson of Tallahassee Community College spoke of "Developing an Effective Digital Repository Using the OnCoRe Blueprint" based on a 2006 FIPSE Comprehensive Grant entitled A Blueprint for the Establishment of a Statewide Standards-Based Digital Repository. The Innovations Conference is dedicated to improving student and organizational learning through innovation, experimentation, and institutional transformation.


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I've added a new demo program (org.jgroups.demos.PubSub), which shows how to use JGroups channels to do publish-subscribe.
Pub-sub is a pattern where instances subscribe to topics and receive only messages posted to those topics. For example, in a stock feed application, an instance could subscribe to topics "rht", "aapl" and "msft". Stock quote publishers could post to these topics to update a quote, and subscribers would get notified of the updates.
The simplest way to do this in JGroups is for each instance to join a cluster; publishers send topic posts as multicasts, and subscribers discard messages for topics to which they haven't subscribed.
The problem with this is that a lot of multicasts will make it all they way up to the application, only to be discarded there if the topic doesn't match. This means that a message is received by the transport protocols (by all instances in the cluster), passed up through all the protocols, and then handed over to the application. If the application discards the message, then all the work of fragmenting, retransmitting, ordering, flow-controlling, de-fragmenting, uncompressing and so on is unnecessary, resulting in wasted CPU cycles, lock acquisitions, cache and memory accesses, context switching and bandwidth.
A solution to this could be to do topic filtering at the publisher's side: a publisher maintains a hashmap of subscribers and topics they've subscribed to and sends updates only to instances which have a current subscription.
This has two drawbacks though: first the publishers have additional work maintaining those subscriptions, and the subscribers need to multicast subscribe or unsubscribe requests. In addition, new publishers need to somehow get the current subscriptions from an existing cluster member (via state transfer).
Secondly, to send updates only to instances with a subscription, we'd have to resort to unicasts: if 10 instances of a 100 instance cluster are subscribed to "rht", an update message to "rht" would entail sending 10 unicast messages rather than 1 multicast message. This generates more traffic than needed, especially when the cluster size increases.
Another solution, and that's the one chosen by PubSub, is to send all updates as multicast messages, but discard them as soon as possible at the receivers when there isn't a match. Instead of having to traverse the entire JGroups stack, a message that doesn't match is discarded directly by the transport, which is the first protocol that receives a message.
This is done by using a shared transport and creating a separate channel for each subscription: whenever a new topic is subscribed to, PubSub creates a new channel and joins a cluster whose name is the topic name. This is not overly costly, as the transport protocol - which contains almost all the resources of a stack, such as the thread pools, timers and sockets - is only created once.
The first channel to join a cluster will create the shared transport. Subsequent channels will only link to the existing shared transport, but won't initialize it. Using reference counting, the last channel to leave the cluster will de-allocate the resources used by the shared transport and destroy it.
Every channel on top of the same shared transport will join a different cluster, named after the topic. PubSub maintains a hashmap of topic names as keys and channels as values. A "subscribe rht" operation simply creates a new channel (if there isn't one for topic "rht" yet), adds a listener, joins cluster "rht" and adds the topic/channel pair to the hashmap. An "unsubscribe rht" grabs the channel for "rht", closes it and removes it from the hashmap.
When a publishes posts an update for "rht", it essentially sends a multicast to the "rht" cluster.
The important point is that, when an update for "rht" is received by a shared transport, JGroups tries to find the channel which joined cluster "rht" and passes the message up to that channel (through its protocol stack), or discards it if there isn't a channel which joined cluster "rht".
For example, if we have 3 channels A, B and C over the same shared transport TP, and A joined cluster "rht", B joined "aapl" and C joined "msft", then when a message for "ibm" arrives, it will be discarded by TP as there is no cluster "ibm" present. When a message for "rht" arrives, it will be passed up the stack for "rht" to channel A.
As a non-matching message will be discarded at the transport level, and not the application level, we save the costs of passing the message up the stack, through all the protocols and delivering it to the application.
Note that PubSub uses the properties of IP multicasting, so the stack used by it should have UDP as shared transport. If TCP is used, then there are no benefits to the approach outlined above.
Monday, September 12, 2011
2 comments:
One thing I didn't mention is that publish-subscribe could be extended to include (STOMP) clients [1], which are outside the pubsub cluster and may even be written in a different language.
This would allow for pub-sub in large clusters consisting of heterogeneous server and client nodes...
[1] http://belaban.blogspot.com/2010/10/stomp-for-jgroups.html
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Digital strategy has changed, but has your library gotten the message? Ten years ago, digital strategy was mostly about peering far over the horizon to predict a hazy, distant future. But the future we saw then—a world of cheap ubiquitous technology, crowdsourcing, social networks, the cloud, and powerful mobile computing—has become the reality of the present. In this inspiring presentation, Michael Edson, the Smithsonian Institution's Director of Web and New Media Strategy, will talk about how libraries of all types can adjust their planning and perspective to benefit—not from better vision of the future—but from a better understanding of what can be accomplished today.
Building on the discussions of Day 1 of the ebook stream, hear more about open ebook initiatives, ebook preservation, publishers' perspectives, ebook readers, and more.
Four different Maryland libraries took unique approaches to marketing ebooks/e-readers to their customers. Learn how each of the systems addressed their customer's curiosity and information needs. Find an approach at this presentation that will work for your library.
This session looks at recent research to evaluate various electronic reading devices and software applications and results of a usability study, all aimed at preparing faculty, staff and students for the future of reading and scholarship in a digital world. Hear about the experience, insights, and further challenges!
Although we are calling them ebooks, electronic versions of works are quite unlike their print-based counterparts. To force an electronic resource to behave like a print resource is an exercise in frustration; does each have a role to play now and in the future? The way ebooks are sold by publishers and distributors, along with the terms of use of institutions serving the public, is getting lots of attention. Join the collaborative conversation around these issues and be a part of this interactive discussion to understand various points of view of publishers, distributors, libraries, and new organizations looking to find creative solutions!
This interactive session with a panel of rapporteurs, wraps up Computers in Libraries' 2- day focus on libraries and ebooks by reviewing the highlights, pulling future actions to the forefront, noting areas for future research for discussion, and more.
Do you suffer from FOMO (fear of missing out)? Have you found yourself in a program when laughter or applause in the next room makes you wonder if you should be there instead? Worried that you might miss the next real new thing? This is the track for you.
When the CML faced several challenges with drastic state budget cuts and a levy on the November ballot, the library knew it needed to tell its story through numerous channels. It implemented a social media plan that built relationships with customers with amazing outcomes: From 3,500 Facebook "likes" to nearly 18,000 in a year, its Facebook ad generated 51 million impressions, its Facebook page was rated one of the top 10 within libraries, CML was ranked third among libraries on Twitter, Twittergrader provided @ColumbusLibrary a grade of 100%, and followers increased from 2,487 on Twitter to 5,788 in a year. Learn how CML achieved these results so you can replicate the plan for your library.
We've heard every reason in the book why your community doesn't know what's going on in your library. The challenge to promote the vital resources being offered is often too big for most libraries' siloed, busy staff. Even if you know how to use the tools, promoting your programs and services takes precious time. More and more libraries have resigned themselves to being satisfied with just communicating the bare minimum to their customers. This presentation shows you how ingenuity, a bit of technology, and the belief that libraries matter to communities can conquer all the barriers stopping you from getting the word out about what your library is doing. Learn how one library is using social media to engage its community to help shape new programs and services — even during Hurricane Irene. Then, imagine a combination of professionally designed graphics for print materials with effective email and social media strategies to help libraries promote their services — you'll get a sneak peek and a chance to voice your opinions of a new marketing tool that will do just that.
Where does the line between personal branding and library end? Is there a way to integrate you and your library's brand? What about online advertising? Everyone says it's cheap and easy but where do you start? QR codes are everywhere, but what really works? How can Skype engage teens? Join librarians from school, public, and special libraries as they share their successes and inspire you to find solutions for your library.
The Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library has been using geographic information systems (GIS) mapping and market segmentation for strategic planning and marketing since 2007. This library is gaining new customers using data, not perception, to make decisions and allocate resources. Learn about their strategies, implementation and see how you can use their roadmap to build a data driven direct strategy in your area.
Spreading the word about your awesome new library programs and services doesn't have to cost money! Learn from three penny-pinching Maryland librarians how to spread the word without busting your budget. Their tools and ideas for marketing to both your current and potential customers include social media, print, traditional media, and more! These low-touch, high-impact practical tips can be implemented immediately.
Walt Disney, one of the most renowned business and creative leaders of the past century, said, "If you can dream it, you can do it. Always remember this whole thing was started by a mouse." Libraries everywhere are heeding this advice, dreaming about how libraries can change lives in communities, in higher education, in government, and in business. Hear how these dreams are becoming realities.
What can bring your library back to life after these difficult times? How can you predict what customers will want? This thought-provoking session answers those questions, suggests strategies, and helps guide your thinking to a compelling future for your library. Dempsey talks about how libraries imagine their future by thinking about the Phoenix, that mythical bird that arises from the ashes. Jones describes how libraries have been "standing in the future" to create detailed visions that are much more than plaques on the wall. She shows cases of libraries that have successfully used this method to create and, most importantly, execute their strategic plans.
Many of the challenges facing libraries are similar to issues found in information technology. Drawing from the research of the CIO Executive Council and its members as well as from other evidence-based methods, this session provides examples and practical implementation advice on how library leaders can advance their agendas and be more effective fundraisers and advocates with a strategic external focus, business peer relationships, and lead organizations that are regarded as innovative rather than stagnant.
Results will be presented from Unisphere's 2012 benchmark study of funding trends in academic, public, and special libraries. Attendees receive a copy of the presentation.
Using the quality management tool Six Sigma, libraries can gain significant process improvement and efficiency by eliminating defects and determining the root causes of process breakdown. Kucsak highlights how the Six Sigma concepts and methodology is helping UNF's libraries implement change and increase performance.
Our first presentation begins by demonstrating how strategic planning and project management go hand-in-hand to ensure success for social media initiatives. Topics include: writing a flexible social media plan that meets the needs of both users and staff, communicating change, balancing projects, and using free or low-cost assessments to make user-centered decisions. The second presentation presents how information solution providers like SWETS are working with Brandeis University to offer new products to combine quantitative tools, such as COUNTER compliant usage statistics with cost, cost per use, combined with qualitative tools and impact factors, to give information specialists evidence-based decision-making tools to evaluate their collections.
The sessions in this track demonstrate the exciting things happening as so many libraries redesign their entire approach to services using technology to change people's lives in ways we used to only dream of.
A major renovation was Millersville's opportunity to redefine the traditional just-in-case reference desk model. Motivated by the closing of the library building during renovation and the reality that students increasingly work in a digital world, staff developed a comprehensive, learner-centered, and distributed approach to providing students with research assistance. Moving beyond a single central physical location, this innovative, tiered model incorporates both physically and electronically embedded librarians as well as targeted face-to-face events that utilize a suite of digital technologies. The distributed nature of this model requires mobile, flexible, and "location-independent" technology solutions, including Google products for phone, text, and instant messaging; Jing for video; digital signage and touch-screen kiosks for way-finding; and iPads for engaging with students.
Library liaison activities create many opportunities to create greater connections between the library and students, faculty, and the curriculum. Harris offers recommendations for liaison involvement; tips for assisting faculty with designing more innovative, multipurpose assignments that integrate technology, research, and student creativity; and integrating student-driven research outcomes into "soft" assignments. To increase student success, retention, and information literacy, UNC Charlotte's Atkins Library unveiled a "Personal Librarian" initiative to new and returning students and faculty during fall 2010. This presentation addresses critical questions: What strategies are most successful in encouraging students and faculty to contact their assigned liaison librarians for library assistance? Does a student's academic success and information literacy increase by working with a "personal librarian"?
May shares the exciting new programs and services from one of the country's oldest and largest public libraries along with their strategies and processes which provide a roadmap for your library to cement it's place in your community's future. Douglas County Libraries has been investigating everything from using an Adobe Content Server to encode digital rights management and circulate titles to freemium business models, crowdsourcing, and OPDS and is becoming a lending library for the Internet Archive. They've also been collaborating to develop totally new programs. Together with a major database vendor, they collaborated with the local school system to meet the e-resource needs of the 55,000 students, increase their database use, and saved taxpayers $100,000 in the process. In this session, they share what they're learning about new services, fostering a sense of community, and adding value beyond the walls of the library.
Fayetteville Free Library is creating and instituting the first Fab Lab in a public library, which includes a MakerBot 3D printer. A Fab Lab is, in essence, an evolution of a computer lab, providing the opportunity to develop and expand the community's transliteracy skills. Queens Library is developing innovative ways to connect with patrons in Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, and English. From financial literacy sessions to free mammograms and Pap tests with free treatment to technology for job seekers, and sessions by lawyers and teachers discussing the Citizenship Exam, the library is using people, videos and websites to connect with and expand their patrons' horizons. Blanton discusses the $ave Steve library program that helps patrons navigate, and in the process learn about, money management.
With recent studies indicating college students don't really understand what libraries can do for them, these libraries are taking action to get first-year students using libraries for better grades. At Cornell University, the Get Started! campaign combines innovative print materials, modern webpage design, and directed multimedia. At Washburn University, librarians aren't content for the libraries to be repositories, so are now the personal librarians of Washburn students and faculty, using technology to teach information literacy to first-year students. At Drake they created a course for first-year students to explore institutional specific resources (special collections/archives) and Drakeapedia, a wiki about, by, and for the Drake community.
This track focuses on the services and roles of librarians interacting with various aspects of nontraditional materials, such as data and institutional documents. Our knowledgeable and experienced speakers address where to start, defining services, as well as finding, assessing, or managing content.
Yes, there are mandates, but what other implications and opportunities does the focus on data have for academic, special, and public librarians? Where might you look for data sets to help local businesses or to inspire a high school science student? What data sets can the library share and where? How can you self-educate with data? This session is an introduction to swimming in data by a librarian who dove into the deep end.
In response to federal mandates for research data management, this large public research library established a Data Working Group to articulate the libraries' role in the management and curation of research data campuswide. The group conducted exploratory activities to understand the campus research environment. Hear how they used interviews, focus groups, and conversations with faculty to identify local concerns and needs surrounding data management.
An institutional repository doesn't need to be limited to faculty scholarship. The first presentation shares the experiences of academic law libraries expanding their repository's collection to include diverse items (from press releases to photographs to videos), what worked, what failed, and future plans for new items. Blake discusses the experiences of her organization, their plans to implement some new technology for their repositories and how she is working with the DOE to build some collaboration with repository initiatives.
This session illustrates how a digital projects group found a balance between using stories and data analysis to assess the success of a repository and how success is defined. The cautionary tale warns that assessing data with various assessment tools can prove ineffective or disconnected without a context provided by a strong narrative. Get some tips and insights from our speaker.
Presenters address the challenges involved with making research data discoverable, describe the implementation experience, demonstrate Dataverse, and discuss future plans. Dataverse, developed by the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University, is an open source application for publishing, citing, and discovering research data.
In the age of the 21st-century learner, a school needs a guide to lead teachers to the best new online tools and resources. The librarian can be that indispensable guide, as is the case with the Tech Flex technology professional development program at Peters Township High School. Come to this presentation to learn how administration and the librarian can work together to facilitate teacher-led professional development opportunities for staff without violating the terms of a teacher contract. You'll come away knowing how to create a similar program of no-cost professional development seminars using a free online tool such as Google Apps, as well as how to get your own administration on board with such a program. A big bonus for you is that this method of creating professional development opportunities encourages faculty to view the librarian as a resource for new technology.
This session provides a thorough overview of storytelling software that aids in drafting, note-taking, sharing, critiquing, editing and organizing outlines and multiple drafts. It looks at programs such as Macworld's Eddy award-winning Scrivener, Microsoft Creative Writer, Storybook, and Storycraft. There's Page Four, FinalDraft, Scripped, and Screenbuddy for screenwriters, and Manga Studio and Google Sketch Up for graphic novelists. Which software platform is best for your program? How will you design and promote tech workshops for your writers? A review of the pros and cons of each software type, teaching tips, and examples of young adult and adult use of software is offered.
Come hear quick, easily usable ideas for inserting painless, inquiry-based research into your instruction! Our goal is to demonstrate how "bursts" of research incorporated into lessons and activities your teachers are already teaching throughout the year can lead to more effective research units.
PBS is a fabulous source of educational media for students and teachers, at home and in schools. This session highlights how to integrate PBS LearningMedia, a new free media- on-demand service, into the classroom. The service brings this curated content collection together into one place, with easy access to classroom-ready, curriculum-targeted, multi-platform resources, including thousands of curriculum and professional development resources from more than 80 educational producers and programs. Content producers include American Experience, NATURE, NOVA, and partners such as the Library of Congress and National Archives.
With the rise in numbers of students owning smartphones and iPod touches, QR codes are a simple and fun way to capture students' attention. This session demonstrates how QR codes can be incorporated into libraries; shows you some ideas and examples of using coding in book covers, reading lists, flyers, bulletin boards, and community correspondence; and shares how teachers across the curriculum have incorporated the same technology in their lessons.


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Row Data Gateway
An object that acts as a Gateway (466) to a single record in a data source. There is one instance per row.
For a full description see P of EAA page 152
Embedding database access code in in-memory objects can leave you with a few disadvantages. For a start, if your in-memory objects have business logic of their own, adding the database manipulation code increases complexity. Testing is awkward too since, if your in-memory objects are tied to a database, tests are slower to run because of all the database access. You may have to access multiple databases with all those annoying little variations on their SQL.
A Row Data Gateway gives you objects that look exactly like the record in your record structure but can be accessed with the regular mechanisms of your programming language. All details of data source access are hidden behind this interface.


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Posted April 15, 2004
When reading Andrea Bottaro's fine post where he tells telltale stories about non-orthodox ideas taking hold in mainstream biology, it reminded me some stories that took place in my field.
I am taking the liberty of telling here a story from my own past.
I guess the name of Lev Landau is known to many readers of this site. He was a very prominent theoretical physicist, a Nobel laureate and a founder and a long-time leader of a group of outstanding theoretical physicists in Russia. His authority among physicists in the USSR was immense and undisputed. To argue against Dau (as he usually was referred to) one could only at one's peril. Every physicist viewed it an honor to be allowed to give a presentation at Landau's famous weekly seminar. If Landau approved the presentation it would immensely enhance the prestige of the presenter. On the other hand, if Landau disliked the thesis he would make mincemeat of the offender with a few very caustic and witty remarks. After being thus disparaged, the hapless offender had nowhere to appeal.
There was in the USSR a professor of physics by the name of Pines who authored an authoritative book on X-rays technique. In the fifties he submitted to Landau a paper which he wished to present at Landau's seminar. This paper was a theoretical treatise about Poisson coefficient. Poisson coefficient is the ratio between the transverse and longitudinal strains of a solid body. It had been a commonly accepted view that Poisson coefficient may have only positive values up to k=1/2. Positive value of k means that when a body is stretched along some axis, it shrinks in the transverse direction. (For example, this is stated this way in the famous Feynman's Lectures on Physics). In fact, a thermodynamic analysis (which I performed in '69) shows that no law of physics forbids a negative value of k, so that k may in principle have values between -1 and +1/2.
Negative k means that a body, while being stretched along some axis, would simultaneously expand along the transverse direction. Such a behavior was, though, never observed, and to the best of my knowledge, the thermodynamic analysis I mentioned was never conducted before, so the common notion had been that k is always positive and not exceeding 1/2.
I have not read Pines's article so I don't know what his arguments were, except for the general idea he suggested some theoretical consideration showing that solid bodies with a negative Poisson coefficient may exist. I could not read Pines's article for a simple reason Landau derided Pines, and Pines's article was never published and was nowhere to be found. Some of my colleagues who happened to witness the story, told that, having looked over Pines's article, Landau said, "You know, Pines, if you swap i and e in your name you get the only body in the world that expands sideways when stretching." End of Pines's prestige and of his theory.
Now jump to 1969. I had at that time a doctoral student Vitaly Balagurov. He was one of only four of my doctoral students (out of the total of 26) who failed to get the doctoral degree. (In 1970 Balagurov had to abandon his research because of family circumstances). In '69 he was conducting experiments with films of magnetic alloys deposited in strong magnetic fields.
Balagurov was frustrated by the stubborn instability of the data he got while measuring stress in these films which was the task I gave him. For a while I was busy with some other research and kept postponing a review of his data. Finally I turned to his raw data and, to my amazement, realized that the alleged instability was caused by what seemed to be a bizarre effect when the films were stretched along one of the axes, they seemed to expand in the transverse direction.
It was hard to believe, so I set out to check the data and to find the glitch in measurements which surely must have been somewhere. Together with Balagurov, we conducted hundreds of measurements, modifying the set-ups, the conditions etc, and, after a long-long series of experiments (as far as I recall, it took a whole year) I came to the conclusion that it was a real effect these films had a negative Poisson ratio!
Of course everybody knew it was impossible the great Landau himself said so a few years earlier and destroyed the poor Pines who dared to suggest otherwise. What could I do to openly go against Landau and common knowledge? That was exactly what I did. I wrote an article (with Balagurov as a co-author) where not only described the experimental results but also dared to offer a model suggesting a mechanism for the observed bizarre phenomenon, and sent it to the prestigious journal of the Academy of Sciences Fizika Tverdogo Tela (Physics of Solids).
The submissions to this journal always are reviewed by at least two anonymous referees. It usually takes some time. What happened, neither Landau's prestige nor the "common knowledge" played a role our article was published, and unusually soon - in less than two months. The "orthodox" scientific "establishment" was obviously more interested in the unusual results than in preserving prestige, orthodox views, or using the alleged mechanism of peer-review to kill unwanted data all those malaises of science attributed to it by the ID crowd.
In physics and biology alike what counts is evidence, and that is what the ID champions have in a very short supply.


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When it comes to painting, or even digital art, Microsoft Excel isn't usually the first thing that pops into your head. Yet 73-year-old artist, Tatsuo Horiuchi, has been using it to create stunningly beautiful traditional Japanese artworks.
If you're going to use software for artistic purposes, why not use something like the powerful and popular Adobe Photoshop, right? Well, Tatsuo Horiuchi's explanation sort of makes sense – he says graphics software is too expensive, while Microsoft Excel came pre-installed on his computer. Plus, although he had never used it himself, before he retired from his job he often saw his colleagues using it to create graphs, so he thought the program could be used to draw art as well. In his early pension years, Horiuchi decided he wanted to try something new, so he bought a computer and began experimenting with digital painting. At first, he tried Microsoft Word, but he experienced problems with determining the canvas size to fit the printing paper, so he ultimately turned to Excel, which had a neat feature that automatically reduced the worksheet size to fit his A4 printing paper. Painting in a spreadsheet application was hard at first, but the ambitious Tatsuo managed to hone is skills, and during the last 10 years he has established himself as an original artist, with exhibitions all over Japan.
Tatsuo Hourichi isn't the world's first artist to use Excel as an art medium, but unlike Danielle Aubert, he doesn't use the program's cells to create pixelated artworks. Instead, he make use of its AutoShape feature to painstakingly draw complicated shapes which he then colors to produce traditional Japanese masterpieces. He still believes Microsoft Excel is an excellent tool, and that quality art doesn't require complicated and expensive solutions. Hourichi sells his creations at local exhibitions in his home town of Sanada, Nagano Prefecture, and also donates them to libraries as large picture books.